


So...Prom?

by transjohnnygill



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, non-binary Alma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 03:50:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6688021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transjohnnygill/pseuds/transjohnnygill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With senior prom coming up, Alma is determined to make it the perfect date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Perfect Plan

Alma was determined to make senior prom the high-light of their high school experience. They had the _perfect_ date (even though they had told Yuu that of course they were just going as friends, because I mean that’s what best friends do, they go to prom as each other’s dates when neither one has a date-date and that’s totally why Alma had asked him) and they had been taking dancing lessons from Lenalee for the past week so that they wouldn’t embarrass themself in front of said perfect date.

Prom was still an entire week away, but from all of the nervous energy and jitteriness that Alma was giving off in sheer anticipation of the high school dance, one might have thought that they were either gearing up for a fight or coming down from a high. Or both. Everything about their relationship with Kanda Yuu was a paradox in some way, shape, or form. Nothing was ever easy, but at the same time, there was nothing simpler.

When Alma first met Yuu at the beginning of their first year of middle school, it had been love at first sight. The only problem was that Kanda had wanted to stay as far out of Alma’s sight as way physically possible. They tried for weeks and weeks to get the Japanese boy to so much as have a conversation with them, often resulting with both of them sitting in detention after school when the attempts at conversation starting ultimately devolved from verbal jabs to bruise-forming physical ones. But through all the fighting and name calling, Alma still held out hope that one day Yuu would warm up to him. Or at least not Vact colder than the frozen tundra.

It wasn’t until Yuu came across Alma being beat up one day after school that their friendship really began. These older kids had cornered Alma out behind the gymnasium after that day’s detention had let out; the bullies had been in detention with the two of them that day, and when the teacher in charge that week had unknowingly used their birthname when calling role…well, let’s just say that it had caught everyone in the room off guard.

So once detention had let out and they were out from under the ever-watchful eyes of the teacher, the bullies wasted no time ganging up on Alma. Face down in the dirt, feet and fists were connecting all over their body as they tried to make themself as small as possible, covering their head and face with their arms. And then Yuu came, like a knight in shining armor built of rage and swear words, knocking the older boys away from Alma and then proceeded to “educate” them over why they wouldn’t be so much as looking at Alma the wrong way again. Kanda’s older brother, Marie, ended up pulling him off of the attackers, having come looking for the younger sibling when he hadn’t been waiting in the car loop to be picked up.

Marie and Yuu’s father, Froi, ended up driving Alma to the hospital after that, and while the Japanese boy had refused to make eye contact with them the entire time, he also didn’t leave his side or call them any of the usual names. In the following days at school, Kanda seemed to tolerate Alma’s persistent company with more grace than he had ever shown in the past (though he did go back to the name calling and insults, which was almost a relief to them since by this point, the lack was super strange), and from there their friendship continued to take hesitant steps forward until they reached the point where the two of them were now: two halves of a whole friendship. Alma just wished that that was all they wanted out of their best friend.

To Alma, Yu was like the sunrise—a vibrant array of light and color bursting through the darkness of their life; he was consistent and reliable, and yet every day there was something new to be seen. And while Yuu couldn’t often be described as tactful or sensitive, he never once so much as scoffed at or questioned Alma’s identity or orientation—the same for which couldn’t be said about a single other person in their life. But despite Kanda’s importance to Alma in their life…Alma couldn’t even begin to piece together what they meant to Yuu.

Working on the history paper in their bedroom, Alma kept finding their thoughts drifting back to the pile of confusion and emotion that was their relationship with Kanda Yuu. Sure, the man stuck up for them, and Alma was the only person allowed to call him Yuu (who even protested when his adoptive father and brothers tried to call him that), and he would occasionally let the corner of his lips twitch upwards into what could graciously be described as ‘not a scowl’ when Alma would say something particularly funny or endearing, but overall, Alma couldn’t say what their best friend defined their relationship as. And because their friendship was Alma’s lifeline, they stayed far away from anything that could potentially disrupt the careful balance that the two of them had developed over the years.

That was why Alma’s plans for prom were so important. With any luck, Alma would be able to dance with the love of their life and spend an entire evening with it being just the two of them. Well, the two of them plus the rest of the senior class. But they weren’t important.

The only thing that Alma hadn’t figured out yet were a few of the small details—was Yuu going to pick them up or the other way around? Should they get corsages, or would that be too much? What color tie was he going to wear, so that they could coordinate colors for their bowtie—it was the little things that were making Alma want to pull their hair out.

Closing their laptop with an exasperated sigh, Alma punched in Yuu’s number on their prehistoric flip phone and waited impatiently for the other to pick up. On the fifth ring, an annoyed Yuu answered the phone with a resounding and monotone, “What?”

“Yuu!!” Alma could almost hear their best friend rolling his eyes on the other end of the line, “Question!”

“Answer. Most likely ‘no’.” This was always the game they played when they called; Lavi would usually just get hung up on.

“Okay, so, what color bowtie should I be looking for for prom? Oh! And what do you think about corsages? And I was thinking—” Alma’s enthusiasm might have gotten away from them a bit as they prattled on, spurting out all of their ideas and plans without so much as a pause for breath.

“Hey hey hey,” Yuu finally managed to get a word in, “What in Tiedoll’s green garden are you talking about, Al?”

“Plans for prom…?” Alma said after a moment’s hesitation, “I thought that it would be nice if we matched…” Another pregnant pause. “Yuu...? You still there…?”

“Tch, of course I’m still here, idiot, I’m just confused as to when the hell I agreed to subject myself to prom.”

_Oh damn. No. No, no. I could NOT have forgotten THAT._ Alma thought to themself, panic rising and the back of their throat threatening to close off completely. But no, after all of the planning and preparation, they had in fact forgotten the most crucial detail of the plan: _Actually asking the date to the dance_. Kanda heard Alma’s head hit their desk with a loud _Thump!_ as the realization hit them, followed by a series of sounds that were probably meant to be words but were muffled by imitation wood.

“You want to repeat that.? Maybe when you’re not kissing your desk?”

Alma lifted their head off of their work surface and muttered into the phone, “I mighta…forgot to ask you…” Their face was on fire—out of all the stupid things that they could have messed up, this one took the proverbial cake. All of their hard work and planning was going to go to waste.

But apparently there was an angel looking out for them, because after a sigh and what might have been a small chuckle, Yuu said, “Blue’s okay. But I’m drawing the line at flowers.” Alma couldn’t believe their ears; it was a Christmas miracle, and it was only April!

“Really??? So you’ll go with me??” They could hardly contain the excitement in their voice.

“Tch, of course, you idiot.”

The rest of their conversation lasted well into the night, ending only when Alma started producing more yawns than actual words, prompting Yuu to demand that they “stop being a moron and go the hell to bed.” Which was rich coming from Yuu, who had the screwiest sleep schedule on the face of the planet, second only to Bookman Jr and maybe some of the faithful, over-worked members of the science club team like poor little Johnny and Mr. Reever. Sleep overtook Alma quickly, sinking them deeply into a dream of blue skies and lotus blossoms.


	2. Prom-ise?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Brief mentions of transphobia and misgendering

The next week at school seemed to drag on forever, as if time had decided to slow down to a measly crawl, extending every second in between the present moment and the night of prom to its absolute max just to spite them. Despite their impatience, Alma knew that it would all be worth it on Saturday night; Yuu had offered to pick them up, and they would be having dinner beforehand with Lavi, Lena, and Allen (who were all going together as one big date, much to the displeasure of Lenalee’s brother, Principal Lee, who didn’t want boys so much as looking at his precious baby sister, let alone dancing with her).

While Kanda may have been clueless to the depth of Alma’s affection, their mutual friends were not, and so the three of them had been doing everything in their power to help Alma pull of the spectacular evening that they had always dreamed of. Lavi had even reserved them a table at a nice Japanese-fusion restaurant, and Lena had helped Alma pick out a rich, royal blue necktie and bowtie for them and Kanda so that they would match, and she assured them that Yuu’s suit was up to par with what they had envisioned. It was all slowly falling into place.

And then on the night that they had been anticipating, it all fell apart. The group of friends arrived at the restaurant only to find that their reservation had somehow been canceled, and that the current wait time for a table was close to three hours long; four restaurants later all with the same result, they all ended up at Jerry’s Dinner at the edge of town (and while Jerry’s undoubtedly had _amazing_ food, it wasn’t really the vibe they had been going for for the night). Then Miranda, the waitress, tripped and spilt soda pop all over poor Lenalee’s dress, and Lavi’s ancient Camaro that he inherited from his grandfather decided that it no longer wanted to start, forcing all five of them to cram into Yuu’s tiny Toyota in order to take Lena back home to change.

By the time the group of seniors actually managed to get to the venue of the dance, Alma was on the verge of tears, the desire to at least not ruin their mascara the only thing keeping the water-works at bay. But much to Alma’s delight, the photographer was still set up off to one side of the front hall, allowing the five of them to take turns getting portraits taken with their respective dates and as a group. _At least one thing is working out tonight_ , Alma thought as they and Yuu stood together for their pictures.

Right as they finished with pictures, a small group of boys walked in, wolf-whistling and cat-calling every girl that they walked by. Alma unconsciously stepped closer to Kanda, eyeing them warily as the boys caught sight of their group. Allen and Lavi both put arms around Lena’s waist, casting hardened glares at the other boys. Snorting, one of the boys scanned Alma up and down as his friends continued their visual assault of Lenalee, disregarding her when she told them to get lost.

“Ya know,” the skeezeball drawled, circling to the side of Alma and Yuu, “the dresscode for this thing says that ladies have to wear _dresses.”_ Kanda took a sharp step towards the guy, jaw clenched and ready to read him the riot act when he felt Alma’s hand against his chest, stopping him. He glanced over at his best friend, who shook their head, eyes pleading for him to leave it alone.

Lenalee, on the other hand, received no such limitation, “ _They_ are dressed _completely_ appropriately, thank you _very_ much. Now why don’t you creeps get lost before I call the principal, you know, _my brother_ , and tell him all about how you’re harassing the other students, hm?”

They paled at the mention of Komui, storming off and muttering under their breath as they shot her dirty looks from over their shoulders. Principal Lee’s zero-tolerance policy over harassment was legendary for being strictly enforced—almost as legendary as his protectiveness over his little sister. Letting out the breath they didn’t know they were holding, Alma quietly excused themself to the restroom to freshen up before the group hit the dance floor.

While Alma wandered off in search of the restroom, Kanda and the others stood waiting just outside the double doors leading to the dance floor, the loud, pulsing music leaking out from underneath the wooden doors along with the echoes of strobe lights. Not two minutes later, a loud crash came from somewhere down the hall, followed by a pained yelp. Exchanging a worried look with Lenalee and the two other boys, Kanda took off in the direction that they heard the commotion come from.

Turning the corner, all Yuu could see was Alma on the ground, back against the wall, surrounded by the three guys that had accosted them in the front entry way. One of the boys turned to face him and sneered, “Hey, Pretty Boy, ya need to tell your _girlfriend_ here to stay the hell out of the _men’s_ room, or she might get _hurt_ , if ya know what I mean.” And then all Kanda could see was red.

Before anyone else could react, Kanda had cleared the space between him and the other teen and _decked_ him square in the nose, the crunch of bone and cartilage painfully audible in the less-noisy expanse of the hallway; the kid stumbled and fell backwards, cursing the Japanese teen for all that he was worth as he clutched his bloody and _very_ broken nose. Lavi got over the shock the quickest, grabbing Kanda by one arm and pulling him back, Allen grabbing the other a moment later, as they tried to keep their friend from going after the target of his wrath for round two.

But even having his arms restrained by his two friends didn’t stop Kanda from swinging his leg out in an attempt to strike the other boy again. Lenalee stepped in between them, pushing Kanda firmly back by his shoulders, “Stop, Kanda! Let one of the teachers handle this! This jerk isn’t worth getting suspended over!” Thoroughly disagreeing, he growled and tried again to step forward and out from behind her arms. “Seriously, enough! I get that you’re pissed, Kanda, but stop and think for a minute! Alma needs you more right now than you need to beat this kid to a pulp.” At the mention of Alma’s name, Kanda stopped his struggle against his friends, whipping his head around, trying to lay eyes on his date, only to find them completely missing from the scene. With a final glare back at the asshole that was still on the ground with tears in his eye, Kanda shook of Allen and Lavi, storming off in favor of finding his missing companion, trusting that Lenalee would handle Alma’s attackers.

Kanda found them outside of the venue ten minutes later, folded over against the trunk of his car with tears streaming down their face, body shaking. Alma looked up as they heard the approaching footsteps, lower-lip quivering as Kanda rushed over to them. He took in his friends trembling figure, holding him at arm’s length, “Are you okay?” _Stupid question_ , he thought as soon as it left his mouth. Alma didn’t respond, but the downward casting of their eyes was answer enough, reigniting the urge to go back inside and _crotch-stomp the little worm_ that had caused this is the first place.

Instead, knowing that violence wouldn’t be of any benefit to anyone other than himself by that point, Kanda pulled Alma close, tucking their head underneath his chin. “C’mon, I’ll drive you home.” He murmured into the mess of blue hair. He didn’t allow himself to say more, not trusting his mouth to keep his concern for them separate from the rage on their behalf that was still heating his veins. He didn’t want to risk making things worse. Actions spoke louder anyway, right? This level of restraint had to say _something_.

“But the others—” Alma started to protest, choking back a sob.

“Old man Bookman or Principal Sister-complex will come get them. They aren’t my concern—you are.” Kanda replied, finality in his tension-filled voice as he stepped back and clicked the unlock button on his car keys.

Alma nodded silently, another tear slipping out of the corner of their eye. Seeing it, Kanda brushed it away with his thumb, his hand lingering on their cheek a few seconds longer than was necessary. Alma blushed, turning away and wiping the remaining tears out of their eyes before sliding into the passenger-side seat of the car.

The drive to Alma’s house was silent, Alma sitting fidgeting with their hands in their lap and turned slightly away from Yuu, not wanting to make eye contact. At a red light, Kanda leaned over, taking one of their hands off of their lap, holding it gingerly in his own over the center console of the car and gently rubbing circles with his thumb. When they reached the darkened house, Kanda pulled all the way forward into Alma’s mom’s usual spot in the carport, her being out of town on a business trip, and turned off the engine, getting out and opening the door for Alma before they had the chance to.

“What are you doing, Yuu…?” They asked, not expecting their friend to follow them inside.

“We never got to dance,” Kanda half-shrugged, “and I told Tiedoll that I probably wouldn’t be home tonight anyway, so…”

Alma gave a half-hearted laugh at the mention of Kanda’s adoptive father. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.” They said, giving the other a free and easy pass if he felt so inclined.

“Tch, like anyone could get me to do anything I didn’t want to.” His usual haughtiness returned to his voice as he rolled his eyes, taking Alma firmly by the hand and starting off towards the front door of the house, pausing only to grab the spare key out from under the ceramic frog that graced the doorstep.

He shoved the key into the lock and flung open the door, stripping off his shoes and coat in the front entry way before continuing further in as if it were his own house, Alma following close behind him. Coming up behind Kanda while he got a glass of water in the kitchen, Alma wrapped their arms around their friend’s midsection, resting their forehead in between his shoulder blades. “Thank you for standing up for me earlier…” They said, voice barely audible.

Kanda set the glass down harder than he meant to, spinning around and pulling Alma into a proper hug, holding them tightly to him. “That bastard’s lucky to still have teeth—” he paused, sighing out the remainder of his anger, “I’ll _always_ stand up for you, idiot; you’re my…” Kanda struggled, words never having been his strong suit, and settled for a compromise, pulling Alma’s face up to meet his own.

The world stopped, time froze, and when Kanda finally pulled back from the painfully short kiss, Alma’s eyes were like saucers staring back at him, wide and caught completely off guard, a deep blush following the path of the scar across the bridge of Alma’s nose. They stumbled back, stuttering and sputtering in shock and confusion, half wondering when they had dozed off and started dreaming. “W-why, w-what w-was—” They couldn’t even manage to form a complete sentence.

“I…” Kanda trailed off, heart pounding in his chest. _If that idiot rabbit lied to me_ , Kanda thought bitterly, _he won’t live to see graduation_. He took a deep breath, “I’ll always be there to stand up for you…” _Now or never_. “…because I love you, and will always be here for you…” The floor was suddenly _very_ interesting, the shade of red on Kanda’s face far surpassing the tinge of pink on Alma’s.

And before he could register what was happening, Alma was kissing him again, tears streaming from their eyes as they threw their arms around Kanda’s neck, pressing his back into the kitchen counter. Kanda kissed back slowly and gently, resting their foreheads together as they parted for breath. Alma just looked at him, eyes glistening as if they were looking at an object of supreme divinity, “…do you really mean it…?”

Kanda placed another kiss on Alma’s lips, “Every word. _Always_ , I promise.”

The two of them fell asleep together on a make-shift bed of pillows and blankets on the floor of the living room, a tangle of arms and legs, after having pushed the furniture off to the sides of the room in order to create their very own dance floor, and after watching nearly every movie that Alma had in their house, though neither one of them could have told you what had happened in any of them. The evening hadn’t gone as either of them had planned, but neither would argue that they were anything but pleased with the results.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the wonderful Selah (the-melancholic-muffin) and this post: http://transjohnnygill.tumblr.com/post/143498221479/ominouslymathematical-vangohing-my-best


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